Swimming and Deaf
People:

April 6, 2009
By Annie Boyd
"Deaf and Water Resistant"

When I was growing up everything that had to do with sports and athletics
always came so easy to me and I never stopped to think of how difficult it
would be or how I would feel if there were barriers that made it harder for
me to succeed. I started swimming when I was three years old and I stayed on
that same team I started with until I was eighteen; fifteen years of
swimming constantly.

I had everything swimming related down to a T. I knew the immediate silence
after the starter called the swimmers to take their mark, the quickness of
the buzzer, the sound the water made when I dove in or when people were
pulling closer, and the cheering that ensued afterwards--it was like a
second language to me. When I think of swimming those are the noises I hear
in my head and it is immediately soothing. What if those noises were not
present? Would I still get the same feeling about this sport that I loved?
Would I be able to compete as easily and efficiently? Would I give up or
keep at it?

All these questions got me thinking about how a person with a hearing
disability be able to identify critiques from their hearing coach and how
would the race be fair if that swimmer could not hear the buzzer when the
race started. Surveys done in Rochon, Feinstein, and Soukup's "Effectiveness
of American Sign Language in Coaching Athletes who are Deaf" have shown that
a majority of coaches of deaf athletes feel as though they are ineffective
communicators with their athletes, although instead of trying to communicate
to them using ASL they resorted to whiteboards and hoping their athlete
could effectively lip read. The athletes who succeeded the most were those
whose coaches incorporated ASL into their practices making their deaf
swimmers feel less alienated which created a bond with their athlete that
lead to a more successful performance by the swimmer.

As stated in "Swimmers with a Disability" by Joanne Love, deaf swimmers can
effectively perform strokes, turns, and starts. "Coaches need to use
frequent demonstrations, give lots of visual feedback and remember to teach
the athlete to use a strobe light as a starting signal," to complete the
readiness process for performance and competition.

Performance is judged on how well one competes and before these swimmers can
compete accommodations must be made so they may have the same advantage as
the non-deaf swimmers. According to “Guide for Swimmers and Parents”
published by USA Swimming prior to swim meets it is necessary for coaches of
deaf swimmers to contact the swim meet director to inform them of the
accommodations that are necessary for their athlete to compete which may
include special seeding in their heats and a clear view of the strobe light
and hand gesture which both initiate the start. The strobe light flashes at
the exact moment the start buzzer goes off so all swimmers begin equally,
now deaf and hearing have no say in the matter, it is simply up to the
amount of time and hard work put into enhancing their swimming skills.

Though there are obvious obstacles for these swimmer athletes, it goes to
show that it is possible to overcome them, otherwise why would there be the
Deaflympics (Deaf World Games) which have been around since 1924? As stated
on the official website for the Deaflympics, "the need for separate games
for deaf athletes is not just evident in the numbers of participants (3,200
athletes and officials). Deaf athletes are distinguished from all others in
their special communication needs on the sports field, as well as in the
social interaction that is an equally vital part of the games."

Those athletes are phenomenal at what they do and it is all owed to the long
road of trials and hard work they overcame in the process. In truth, I feel
they are more admirable for their accomplishments because it was harder to
reach their ultimate goals than it would be for someone who could hear all
the demands necessary, immediately.